Originally Posted by
ashill
Say what? That's never been the oneworld or American policy AFAIK. If you have access based on any one flight in your itinerary, you have access for the entire itinerary, as long as you're departing the airport you're in on a oneworld-marketed and oneworld-operated flight, and as long as the connections are connections, not stopovers (exact definition varies a bit).
You are incorrect! Admittedly, you do not have experience with AS as a oneworld member. The quote I referenced was taken directly from the oneworld website. It is a "carve out" exception to standard oneworld access rules, just as there are exceptions for, AA & UL.
Scroll down to - The Following Exception Apply:
Additionally, Alaska Airlines customers on Alaska Airlines operated domestic flights, connecting to or from an international long-haul flight in a premium cabin on the same day, are eligible for oneworld lounge access before the domestic flight.
Originally Posted by
ashill
The language on both alaskaair.com and oneworld.com is.....
Nothing about the access only applying in the gateway airport. OP was travling on a oneeworld member airline to a destination outside of the US, Canada, or Mexico and should have had access in Seattle, full stop.
Please reference the "exception" from the oneworld website above. Full stop.
Originally Posted by
ashill
The premium cabin policy is not relevant for the OP, since they were looking for status-based access.
It is weird and confusing that the rules are different. (Five years or so ago, the oneworld language was much more precise, much more clear, and much less ambiguous, but not really any more or less generous. It's very frustrating that they've switched to fluffy marketing without clear fine print, especially since I don't think the intended actual rules have changed at all.)
All that said, my Alaska (and AA) elite status is long gone, so no recent experience. But the interpretation that lounge access is only granted in the international gateway city makes no sense and isn't consistent with the language on airline web sites or any of my oneworld experience (from 2019 and earlier).
AL access is granted before an AS domestic flight if traveling internationally in a premium cabin. Oneworld status doesn't grant access otherwise given the "exception" for AS.
If AL access was based solely on oneworld status, regardless of cabin, the boarding pass on the domestic flight would have been coded and access granted in SEA. That was not the case. Since the OP was not traveling in a Premium cabin internationally & access based on oneworld Elite Status is excepted on AS domestic flights, the OP was rightfully denied.
I don't see it as being ambiguous since the exception is clearly outlined on the oneworld website.
From YLW, I can't get any farther south than SAN without an overnight stopover. My flight LAX-LIR was in April after an LAX overnight. I was flying U which wouldn't qualify for AL access but I was granted access on my OWE Status. I can't speak to the domestic flight but I have AL access anyway.
James